BARBARA A Blessing From The Angel Of Death CD Heart And Crossbone Records (Israeli import)
This bass and drums duo recorded this live set in Tel Aviv in 1999, and released it as this full length CD on their own Heart And Crossbones imprint.. the recording quality is top notch, in an overblown, loud as fuck blowout, as BARBARA tears through 9 songs of harsh black metal / prog punk brutality, with a crushing bass guitar attack, crusty witch vocals, and fastpaced drumming. Lots of weird math-y breaks amongst jazzy tornado thrash and slow, sludgy dirges. There are a (very) few awesome melodic moments dropped in here and there...hypnotic melodies that drone for a minute before the tweaked angular thrash kicks back in full force. Imagine if RUINS donned corpse paint and started belting out buzzsaw black metal jams a la DARKTHRONE. Heavy, highly syncopated, raw but with excellent musicianship and spastic mindwarping intensity. Awesome.
NORTH AMERICA: $10.99
REST OF WORLD: $14.99
review from [http://www.blackminds.tk/]:
Metal Heads Mission, V, open air festival 2004, Sun, Ukraine. [40 bands / 2 days] However the time for a dessert after the meat dish came! And that were guests from far off Israel - the land from which came the most horrible mental plague, that struck a formidable part of the world Ladies and Gentlemen! - Barbara is on the scene! Let the word go to my colleagues...
Nonnuix>Oh, yeah! The Jewry under the euphonic title Barbara (in no way Streisland!) appeared to play double. Bass, guitar and drums - are the only instruments, that used by that band, and the vocals divided between two participants. Nobody was waiting for such a project! Before the band performance, it seemed that the drummer worked at "Sun" as a painter, but that evening everybody understood, that appearance can be disguised. The Jewry Dave and Gram play outstanding grindcore. Distorted bass and miscellaneous drums made the majority open their mouths and just look at this miracle! I havenıt ever seen any analogs to this band All taken to the fest band CDs were booked in advance, thatıs why very few average listeners were able to buy the band record. Barbara live was great!
review from [http://aquariusrecords.org/]:
BARBARA A Blessing From The Angel Of Death (Heart & Crossbone) cd 12.98
How could we resist? A band called Barbara. From Israel. On the cover, the name Barbara is written in ornate olde English, with the middle 'b' extending into a huge crucifix. The record is called A Blessing From The Angel Of Death! Song titles include "Heart Of Thorns", "Concrete Heaven", "Morbidity" and "Hotdog" (?). We knew before we even heard it that this was AQ through and through. Thankfully, the music was just as good as we had hoped. Noisy and raw, Blessing... was recorded live in Tel Aviv in 1999, and sounds like it. Overblown and a bit lo-fi, with super saturated vocals and crumbing guitar distortion, this is wild and chaotic and furiously intense. Imagine a black metal Hella, or the Ruins playing Darkthrone in a concrete bunker, or an even more damaged sounding Lightning Bolt. Just bass and drums, a super tight, uber distorted sludge-metal rhythmic chaos engine, spitting out relentless metallic mayhem, wild unpredictably spastic drumming, huge throbbing mud bass, and howled and shrieked vocals. Occasionally, the band stretches out into ambient post rock, doomy Khanate-isms, all syncopated bursts of musical bile, melodies hidden amidst prickly pounding riffage. And as with lots of live recordings, it's totally disconcerting to hear the barely there smattering of applause in the black hole vaccum of silence between each song. This is the sort of monstrous brutality that you imagine being played atop Valhalla, across a valley of cowering minions, bowed in reverent worship. Or at least in the corner of a sweaty, writhing, jam packed little club!
"bARBARA- Ashtray Full Fridge Empty EP
Strictly bass-guitar, drums, and vocals, bARBARA lurch into everysong with garage band aggression. You would think that the lack of a guitarwould leave an obvious hole in the wall of sound, but the powerful vocalsare spread out over a distorted bass and heavy, percussive beats, whichmake a thick amount of noise for a duo that leaves nothing to be desired.The EP starts off with "Deconversation", a syncopated bass line opensthings up which soon grows louder with the addition of a voice. The vocalsare varied, spanning melodic singing to an aggressive guttural holler; allof which is perfectly matched with the music. The second track, "On Wheels" opens with an impressive drum beat, soon clouded by the distorted bass, and then slows down to showcase the more melodic side of the band."
"bARBARA have great presence and this is a very intense EP. Hopefully it's a sign of moreto come."
Oculus, NJ, USA
"bARBARA, DEMO 2 MATERIAL FOR THE ALBUM III
FOUR SEMI-CATHARTIC, PROPULSIVELY RHYTHMIC BASS AND DRUM TRACKS STRAGGLE ALONG IN A MUSTY ATMOSPHERE TO COAGULATING EFFECT ON bARBARAS NO NONSENSE CASSETTE. DEMONICALLY POSSESSED RANTS N' RAVES GIVE THESE GUITAR-LESS TRACKS A METALLIC SHIMMER SOMEWHAT REMINISCENT OF THE NOW DEFUNCT COP SHOOT COP. COMPULSIVELY ADDICTIVE AND A BIT UNSETTLING, THIS DUOS MUSIC USES SONIC FEEDBACK TO EFFICIENTLY FILL ANY EMPTY SPOTS. "
bARBARA
Do No Evil Upon the Earth
Independent
Finally, bARBARA's full length follow-up demo to their Ashtray Full Fridge Empty EP. Ten 4-track recordings make up Do No Evil Upon the Earth, and it's hard to believe that they're even heavier and more aggressive than before. I am always surprised at how this band is only a duo, since they make more noise taking out their frustrations on a poor bass guitar and pummelled drum set than the average four piece band does on speed. Not to mention the throat shredding vocals." "Through all the angsty grindcore tracks they still find time to slow things down a little, even though on this disk it's not until track nine with "Concrete Heaven". For the most part this is a relaxed, repetitive, primarily instrumental track with the duelling bass and drums combo toned down quite a bit. It seems like the lengthy intro is only a break to recoup, though, since about three minutes in they pick up the pace and crawl back into their trademark brutality. I read somewhere that this music will only appeal to those who are institutionalized, and although that's worth a laugh it doesn't really explain why I get such a kick out of it. They say that their earlier EP gained them some attention from labels, and this new disk can only take that further."
"It took a while, but this has grown on me. Bass and drums dishing out angry, heavy, dark, industrial hardcore with droning to screaming vocals. Not for all but some will love it."
